In October last year, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that social media giant Facebook was transitioning to Meta Platforms, there were questions aplenty. Was it done to escape the regulatory blizzard that it had found itself in? Or was it about tapping into the promising metaverse space and reaping the first-mover advantage? Sascha Kraus, professor of management at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano in Italy with expertise on the subject of digital transformation, has some answers. Edited excerpts from the interview: